The invention relates to a method and apparatus for coupling the terminals of a multipole connector to a circuit board.
Up until now, connectors, for example 96-pole connectors or the like, have usually been coupled to circuit boards by soldering the connector terminals to plated through holes in the circuit board. However, new surface connection techniques give rise in particular to the problems discussed below for the connection of such connectors. The bonding of electronic components and the like may be carried out by a type of bonding known as "surface mount" by means of so-called gull wings or "J" wings, not requiring any wave soldering; instead, soldering is performed by a reflow of soldering paste which has been previously deposited. If the customary form of hole bonding is utilized for the connection of a normal connector, this gives rise to the necessity, which is undesirable from the production point of view, that a so-called solder wave is required just for the connector terminals. This is obviously undesirable in a manufacturing process.
In order to avoid wave soldering, it has already been proposed to attach the connectors mechanically, for example by riveting, in the edge region and to allow the terminals to rest more or less freely, with just a slight contact pressure, on the intended contact points of the circuit board and to carry out bonding by the reflow solder method. However, this may also entail difficulties in that the many contacts do not necessarily rest with precisely the same preload pressure on the intended contact points. For instance, it is possible that one metal lead rests on its contact point with a relatively high pressure and another is not in contact at all, so that absolute contact reliability cannot be insured. If, on the other hand, the terminals of a multipole connector are provided with a certain resilient preload, it may easily happen that the circuit board is distorated slightly by the preload pressure exerted by the terminals, for example by 0.3 to 1 mm. This means that the desirable easy insertion of a circuit board into its intended position is no longer guaranteed.